Circular looms



R- N. LOW ET AL CIRCULAR LOOMS Dec. 13, 1955 Filed Feb. 24, 1955 III/R INVENTORS mm Lm ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,726,684 CIRCULAR LOOMS Robert Norrie Low, Dundee, Scotland, and Jean Catry,

Flixecourt, France, assignors to Fairwest (U. K.) Limited, London, England, a British company Application February 24, 1953, Serial No. 338,452 Claims priority, application Great Britain February 22, 1952 3 Claims. (Cl. 13913) This invention relates to circular looms of the kind in which the movements of the warp-threads are efiected directly or indirectly by the action of one or more cams, and has for its object to provide means whereby, when required, the warp threads can be moved into one of their extreme positions, thus uncovering the shuttles, and, when required, allowing the warp threads to return to their original positions, thus permitting the re-entry of the shuttles into the shed.

According to this invention, the main cam or cams are associated with an auxiliary cam or cams rotating at a speed in predetermined relationship with that of the main cams, said auxiliary cam or cams being capable of drawing their associated warp threads into one extreme position and returned to their original position when required, by means of a booking device.

As applied to a circular loom in which the healds are influenced towards their upper positions by springs and towards their lower positions by rotary cams acting upon rocking levers, each of said rocking levers may be provided with a hooking-piece adapted to be engaged, when required by the hooked end of a lever the other end of which is pivoted to the free end of a secondary rocking lever actuated by an auxiliary cam. Preferably there is also provided, in association with each heald or set of healds, a controlled latch so arranged as to be capable of engaging with a part of the heald-operating mechanism whereby such heald or set of healds may be held in its lower extreme position.

One form of the invention will be particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings which is a diagrammatic elevation of a heald operating mechanism for a circular loom.

As shown in the drawing, each heald frame a is carried by the top end of an operating rod b which extends through bushings b and b the lower end of the rod being pivoted to one arm 0 of a bellcrank lever c, d mounted on a stationary fulcrum e. The outer end of the arm d of the bell-crank lever is pivotally connected with one end of a drag-rod which is under the influence of a return tension spring g one end of which is connected with said drag-rod near its outer end as at h whilst the other end i is anchored to the frame of the loom as at the arrangement being such that the action of the spring g tends to raise the heald a to its upper position.

The outer end of the drag-rod f is pivotally connected to the lower end of a dependent rocker lever k, fulcrumed at m on the framework of the loom, said lever k being adapted to be acted upon by a main cam n, which, being driven at a speed corresponding with that of the shuttle (not shown), causes the heald a to be drawn downwardly against the action of the spring g in conformity with the shuttle movements.

A second dependent rocker lever 0 similarly fulcrumed as at p is adapted to be acted upon by an auxiliary cam q and is pivotally connected at its lower end r to one end of a rod s provided with an upwardly extending hook t normally held clear of, but capable of being raised to engage with a hooking piece it which projects transversely from the lower portion of the lever k.

The outer end of the drag-rod is provided with a downwardly projecting beak v capable of being engaged by the hooked end w of a control latch lever x fulcrumed to the loom framework as at y.

During normal working of the loom, the heald a is moved up and down in conformity with the movements of the shuttles, by the action of the main cam n through the medium of lever k, drag rod 1, bell crank lever c, d and operating rod b.

When, however, it is desired to uncover the shuttles, the latch levers x are raised and so is the rod s (by suitable means not shown) so that the hook t will engage with the hooking piece a, whereby the lever k is drawn backwards beyond the influence of the cam n and the heald a is moved into its lowermost position under the influence of the auxiliary cam q.

The healds a are then retained in their extreme lowered positions by the latch levers x through the engagement of the beaks v with the hooks w and so retain the drag rods 1 in their retracted positions. Lowering the latch levers x releases the mechanism to the control of the auxiliary cams q whereby the healds a may be permitted to rise and cover the shuttles at the appropriate times, this being followed by the release of the hooks t from the hooking pieces u so that normal weaving may proceed under the control of the main cams n.

We claim:

1. In a circular loom having healds, a pivoted main rocker lever having a cam for actuating it to move the respective heald in one direction and a spring for moving the heald in the opposite direction, catch means fixed to said rocker lever, a pivoted auxiliary rocker lever having a cam for actuating it, and hook means pivotally connected to the auxiliary rocker lever for movement about its pivot into and out of engagement with said catch means, the auxiliary rocker lever being operative by its cam to turn the main rocker lever about its pivot while said hook means is engaged with said catch means.

2. In a circular loom having healds, a pivoted main rocker lever having a cam for actuating it to move the respective heald in one direction and a spring for moving the heald in the opposite direction, a transversely projecting hooking piece on said rocker lever, an auxiliary rocker lever, a hooked rod pivotally connected to the auxiliary rocker lever and movable about its pivot into and out of engagement with said hooking piece on the main rocker lever, and auxiliary cam means for actuating said auxiliary rocker lever to turn the main rocker lever about its pivot through the medium of said hooked rod and hooking piece.

3. In a circular loom having healds, a pivoted main rocker lever having a cam for actuating it to move the respective heald in one direction and a spring for moving the heald in the opposite direction, a catch means fixed to said rocker lever, an auxiliary rocker lever, hook means pivotally connected to the auxiliary rocker lever and movable about its pivot into and out of engagement with said catch means, auxiliary cam means for actuating the auxiliary rocker lever to turn the main rocker lever about its pivot, additional catch means connected to the main rocker lever, and additional hook means having means for pivotally mounting it on a fixed part of the loom and movable into engagement with the additional catch means connected to the main rocker lever.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,069,330 Rossmann Feb. 2 1937 2,131,679 Ulrich Sept. 27, 1938 2,248,281 Pelee July 8, 1941 2,592,820 Moessinger Apr. 15, 1952 

